This invention relates to messaging platforms and, more particularly, to messaging platforms that are capable of automatically executing programs that arrive with or constitute a part of a message.
Telecommunications networks typically connect a calling party to a called party and the ensuing communication comprises transmitting voice and/or data information. Sometimes, the effective "parties" are computers which, under operator or stored program control, send and receive information; e.g., files of data. In the context of communication between computers, either a computer receives information in response to a request, or a computer receives information without having requested it. The latter condition--that of receiving information without having requested it--basically describes messaging platforms; and the instant invention relates to such platforms. Of course, an attendant attribute of messaging platforms is that once they accept messages when they arrive from senders, they hold them until the messages are delivered to or picked up by the recipients.
In the disclosure that follows, the term "information package" is used for the collection of signals that are communicated to a recipient messaging platform. As described in greater detail hereinafter, the "package" may contain more than just the content of the message that the recipient is to receive.
Voice messaging platforms communicate voice information packages pursuant to a sending party's request, and those are quite well known. Structurally, the platform comprises a storage medium and an associated processor that is connected to the telecommunications network. When a party wishes to leave a message for a particular recipient, the telecommunications network connects the party to the platform and the platform prompts the party to leave the message. The offered message is then stored in the storage medium and action is taken to inform the recipient that a message has been received. In some applications, the action taken comprises repeated attempts to reach the recipient. In other applications, the action taken comprises the setting of conditions in a central office to which the recipient is connected, causing a signal to be communicated to the recipient that a message has been received. Typically, that signal is a stutter dial tone that the recipient receives when he or she goes off hook to initiate a call.
While we view arrangements where packages that are destined for a recipient and are sent to a particular platform as "messaging platforms", it should be recognized that there are some differences between typical e-mail arrangements and typical voice messaging arrangements. Specifically, aside from the difference that voice messaging platforms store voice, the more basic difference is that voice messaging platforms typically interact with the remote sender of the message by providing the sender a sequence of prompts, whereas in the e-mail situation, the receiving platform is passive (vis-a-vis the sender).
Three characteristics that are common to all messaging platforms and which are relevant to the instant disclosure are:
that the messaging platform receives information strictly in response to the wishes of message senders, PA1 that the identity of the recipient is explicitly provided to the messaging platform, and PA1 that the message received by the platform is precisely the message provided to the recipient.
Various advantages can be realized by circumventing the limitations imposed by the two last-mentioned characteristics.